For those of us who have followed stories and theories of AI and its newer cousin ‘machine learning’ since the late 1960s, the following video clip from a Charlie Rose show is a breath of refreshing reframing.  It features Andrew Ross Sorkin, Ray Kelly and Lucy Suchman, and does a damn fine job of questioning the extended hype around these issues; another link in the chain of demystifying technological environments:

https://charlierose.com/videos/28424

It has come down to the wire–not the TV show but the reality of CUNY’s funding through a Maintenance of Effort Bill (MOE) that many of you signed post cards to urge Cuomo to sign the simple bill.  It sits on his desk.  Take another crack at it please and follow the link below to urge his signature.

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-gov-cuomo-to-sign-the-moe-bill-2?source=direct_link&

in addition to the urgent call for funding for CUNY, the CCNY students protested the CUNY Board of Higher Education last week, and among other issues, demanded dis-investment in fossil fuels, and no tuition hikes.

acting together

Joan

Please join us:  (the following was sent by Andrea Vasquez, Managing Director, of the Grad Center’s New Media Lab):

We hope you can join us for a “screening” and roundtable discussion on the CUNY Digital History Archive, community archiving, and the challenges of producing such a project. It’s at the CUNY IT conference at John Jay College this Friday, Dec. 4th at 9:30 am. The conference is free and open to all but, if you haven’t registered, it’s a good idea to arrive early.

Below is our panel description and we look forward to a lively conversation with all attendees. Thanks for your past interest, participation and contributions. We look forward to seeing you on Friday or hearing from you about the Archive.

Technical and Conceptual Challenges of Developing the CUNY Digital History Archive (CDHA)
(Tools & Archives Track)

This roundtable explores the process of creating a democratically produced digital archive on CUNY’s rich history. Presenters will describe the CDHA’s evolution and the decision to customize the Omeka web tool for the archive’s backend and online display. The presenters, which includes historical contributors, the Omeka programmer, lead scholar, archivist and project director, will demonstrate CDHA online collections and discuss the technical and conceptual challenges involved in archiving CUNY’s history.
Speakers:
Marco Battistella, American Social History Project, The Graduate Center (Omeka Programmer)
Steve Brier, Urban Education, The Graduate Center (Lead Historian)
Joan Greenbaum, Professor Emerita, LaGuardia Community College and The Graduate Center (Contributor)
Johnathan Thayer, Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Queens College (Project Advisor Archivist)
Andrea Vásquez, American Social History Project, The Graduate Center (Project Director)
Sandra Watson, Retired Dean of Adult and Continuing Education, LaGuardia Community College (Contributor)

Joan Greenbaum

Meet at City Hall Plaza

The climate justice movement is on a roll. We were so excited to hear that people power finally beat back the Keystone XL Pipeline last week — but here at Bronx Climate Justice North we’re not sitting back to relax!

Can you join us for a special public forum tomorrow about the future of the Bronx? Here are all the details:

WHAT: Made in the Bronx: Green Buildings, Green Jobs
WHEN: Saturday, November 14th, 2:00-5:00 PM
WHERE: Smith Auditorium, Manhattan College, Riverdale section of the Bronx

Click here for more info and to RSVP on Facebook.[act.350.org]

2015 is on track to be the warmest year on record. Climate change threatens our economy, infrastructure, public health, food and water — and NYC’s future.

Buildings account for close to 72% of U.S. electricity use, and contribute to high asthma rates in the Bronx. We need a rapid and just shift off fossil fuels and on to a 100% renewable energy economy.

Our speakers will focus on the transition to renewables and exciting initiatives here in the Bronx to build a green, local workforce, as well as green housing for all.

Hope to see you there,

Jennifer Scarlott for Bronx Climate Justice North

This Week, on Thurs., Nov. 12, students across the country are organizing the #MillionStudentMarch, a day of coordinated local actions on hundreds of campuses. The #MillionStudentMarch platform calls for tuition-free public college, a cancellation of all student debt, and a $15 minimum wage for all campus workers. Actions are being organized by students at BMCC, Brooklyn College, City College, College of Staten Island and Hunter College.

Joan Greenbaum

Intro to MALS: New Media seminar visited the “Experiencing the Interface” interactive/touch and feel exhibit at Bard Graduate Center.  Its a small room, with powerful reminders about the technologies we have used in the last 40 years, including keyboards, mobile phones, game boys and early TRS and Apple computers.  Kimon Kerimedas, GC PhD graduate curated this exhibit and gave us an engaging tour.

early Mac & wall hanging keyboards of the past

MALS students and old computers

Kimon Kerimedas’s discussion engages students

This exhibit at the Bard Graduate School @ 18 W 86th St, is a first of its kind in touch and feel and experiencing computing history:

The Interface Experience: Forty Years of Personal Computing

 

Through July 19, 2015

Curated by Kimon Keramidas, Assistant Professor and Director of the Digital Media Lab, BGC

Computer technology provides us with constant opportunities to try new things, and with each new device we get a peek at what the future has in store. But the history of that technology is just as important as the future. The Interface Experience: Forty Years of Personal Computing tells the story of that past through tactile and interactive displays that will stimulate new questions about how we interact with and use computers.

The last forty years of computing history have been defined by the ascendance of personal computers. This era saw the power of computation finally brought out of laboratories and corporate technology centers and into the purview of the individual user. Over these four decades, we have seen a blur of technological advances in both hardware and software, as computers have gotten smaller, faster, more powerful, and more complex in their capabilities. In fact, so much has happened so quickly and has been so dramatic in its effect on everyday life that we often forget to think about just how we have interacted with these machines over time, and how those interactions have come to define those experiences. To counter this loss of perspective, The Interface Experience presents some of the most ubiquitous objects in the history of personal computing. The exhibition offers visitors a unique opportunity to gain a better understanding of the history of the design and material experience of computers, and it aims to stimulate personal questions about how interaction with these devices has influenced each of our lives.

What makes The Interface Experience unique is the level of tangible interaction that visitors will have with the exhibition objects. A computer is more than merely an assemblage of plastic, metal, and glass, and to understand its importance, the visitor must experience the interface between the user, hardware, and software of that device. To this end, the five computing devices central to the exhibition—the Commodore 64 (1982), Macintosh Plus (1986), PalmPilot Professional (1997), iPad 2 (2010), and Microsoft Kinect (2010)—are fully functional and are running custom-developed software. Through this software, visitors are able to experience the unique characteristics of each device and consider its place in history. The exhibition also includes innovative staging of the objects within the space and a robust web platform full of information on the objects on display. The Interface Experience promises to be simultaneously evocative, interactive, and informative for anyone who has ever used a computer.

Download the Full Press Release »

Image Credit: Commodore 64 with 1541 disk drive and 1702 monitor. Commodore International, 1982.

← VIEW MORE UPCOMING GALLERY PROGRAMS →

Exhibition Website

Interface Experience in the News

This web application describes the complex network of innovations, relationships, and market trends that make up the history of personal computing. Explore this history by reading about some important personal computing devices, by looking at the different connections they shared, or by comparing them using a variety of statistics.

Launch Website »

Watch on YouTube »

CNET

“40 years of gadgets come out to play”
By Joan E. Solsman

Engadget

“Exhibition lets you go hands-on with 40 years of gadgets”
By Steve Dent

Engadget

“Reinvigorate your inner nerd at this retro-computing exhibit”
By Jon Turi

The New York Times

“Clunky Old Technology”
By Eve M. Kahn

Exhibition Catalogue

The Interface Experience: A User’s Guide

by Kimon Keramidas

The Interface Experience: A User’s Guide surveys some of the landmark devices in the history of personal computing and helps us to better understand the historical shifts that have occurred in the design and material experience of each machine. With its spiral-bound design reminiscent of early computer user manuals and a thorough consideration of the cultural moment represented by each device, The Interface Experience is a one-of-a-kind tour of modern computing technology.

(New) Public Goods: Design, Aesthetics and Politics. Oct, 3 @ 9:30am

Parsons the New School for Design and the School of Design Strategies invites you to the 2013 Stephan Weiss Lecture Series:

Thursday, October 3
9:30am-12:30pm

Location: Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, Arnhold Hall
The New School, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd Floor, New York

This Fall’s Stephan Weiss Lecture considers the import of design practices concerned with the production and distribution of public goods, including public services and utilities, public policy, government institutions, and other organizations working within the public realm or subjected to broad public scrutiny. Increasingly, the focus of design is shifting from questions of form to questions of transformation. The Weiss Lecture will explore the challenges these design practices pose to the relationship between institutional infrastructure and regulative norms, as well as to emerging forms of commons and community. Configured as a Design Strategies Dialogue, this event brings together five leading figures from the world of design and the social sciences, alongside discussants Clive Dilnot, Victoria Hattam and Jamer Hunt:

PELLE EHN: Professor at Malmö University’s School of Arts and Communication

MARIA HELLSTRÖM REIMER: Professor at Malmö University School of Arts and Communication and Director of Studies for the Swedish Faculty for Design Research and Research Education

CARL DISALVO: Associate Professor in the Digital Media program in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology

JOAN GREENBAUM: Professor Emerita at City University of New York and the New Media Lab at the CUNY Graduate Center

KEITH MURPHY: Assistant Professor of Anthropology at University of California Irvine.

With Discussants: Clive Dilnot, Victoria Hattam and Jamer Hunt